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July 31, 2015

I have two videos being screened plus a live performance this week, all related to Remote Control Tomato. An initiative of Spread Art, Remote Control Tomato is a collaborative performance platform of Thomas Bell (sound, performance art) and me (visuals, performance art) in which we site-specific, immersive environments. Mixing a variety of technologies, performances rely on improvisation and generally invite public participation.

Con(text) is a site-specific participatory performance work that explores the intersection of mainstream media, conformity, social justice, and identity. The work immerses audiences in a low and hi tech multimedia environment of video, sound, movement and performance art, creating a performative experience of authentic human interaction within which an exploration of individual privacy and autonomy can take place. This excerpt of the larger work explores themes of self-reflection, personal versus group identity and inside versus outside.UntitledRemote Control Tomato (Christina deRoos/video, Thomas Bell/sound) with Sarah BenolielScreening at Sidewalk Festival for the Performing Arts, Saturday, August 1 @ 6pm at Artist Village.

Sidewalk is an outdoor celebration of performance and installation art in the heart of Detroit’s Old Redford and Brightmoor neighborhood. Sidewalk presents radical, interactive works of performance art, dance, music, theater and sculpture in unique spaces, curating original work that uncovers the hidden potential of these places. Activated spaces include alleys, storefronts, sidewalks, community gardens,parking lots, and streets.

February 07, 2015

I'm collaborating with Matthew Daher on the video environment for his upcoming EP release party. Aside from the fun of tangling with a lot of cables and projectors, I'm happy to support a project with a title that concisely sums up the advice of dozens of books I've read: Dwelling Lightheartedly in the Futility of Everything.

Dwelling Lightheartedly In The Futility of Everything is the latest release from Detroit drummer/composer/producer Matthew Daher. The culmination of 4 years of explorations in groove-driven songwriting, with studio production guided by electroacoustic gesture and manipulation, Dwelling weaves ambient, noise, and post-rock sensibilities into cerebral and emotive compositions inspired by artists such as Georgia Anne Muldrow, J Dilla, and Bjork.

October 12, 2014

I recently created two new video works for exhibitions in Detroit. The first, Extraction, was included in "Video Center," a September exhibition at the N'Namdi Gallery for Contemporary Art during the biennial Dlectricity festival.

On the second night of the exhibition, the gallery space was further activated with a collaborative, interdisciplinary performance, Extraction/Distraction, featuring a live mix of Extraction and other video, created in real time in response to sounds from Thomas Bell and movement from Ryan Myers-Johnson.

Photos: Meighen Jackson

The second recent video work is an untitled piece exploring the relationship of sound and movement, and will be shown Saturday, October 18 during Infrared Ultrasound, a one night video art and performance event curated by Natasha Beste and Matthew Daher.

August 03, 2014

Founded by Ryan Myers-Johnson, Sidewalk Festival of the Performing Arts is an annual outdoor celebration of site-specific performance and installation art, in the heart of Detroit’s Old Redford/Brightmoor Neighborhoods.

For Sidewalk 2014, Spread Art facilitated a participatory visual art project, inviting residents of and visitors to Brightmoor and Old Redford to transform recycled fabric into a temporary installation reflecting collective impressions in response to "Brightmoor Is" or "Old Redford Is." The fabric pieces will next be quilted together to form a creative archive of one day in the history of Brightmoor and Old Redford. See more 2014 photos here.

For the inaugural edition of the festival (2013), Remote Control Tomato (a collaboration with Thomas Bell) presented U.S.A. PATRIOT ACT(ION), a multimedia exploration of the surveillance state. See 2013 photos here.

July 07, 2014

Summer 2014 began with another crazy weekend of art during Bushwick Open Studios. This year Spread Art presented Transient ID: DET <-> NYC in collaboration with Indus Truck Works, Ltd.

The event built upon last year's Don't Box Me In, again including two full days of performance art. This year added a visual art show inside the box truck brought from Detroit by Indus Truck Works, and the street outside of Pine Box was closed all day Saturday, which brought many other performance artists and groups to the streets, including a full day of music curated by ThingNY.

I presented a work-in-progress version of All Systems are Inherently Unstable as part of the group show in the truck (left image below). The finished work will show at Whitdel Arts during the annual Members Show, running July 11 - August 9 (middle image below).

Saturday evening, in collaboration with The Cocoon Project, I participated in Transient ID: Inside, the Future which took place at sunset. With multiple artists collaborating in an improvised multimedia setting, I contributed a real-time mix of projected visuals (right image above), including remixed documentation of Anya Liftig's performance art work, including Ancient Evenings, Feeder and Failing/Flying: The Mash.

Next up is an interactive installation on August 2 during the second annual Sidewalk Festival of Performing Arts, an outdoor celebration of site-specific performance and installation art in the heart of Detroit’s Old Redford/Brightmoor Neighborhoods.

March 11, 2014

Of all the places I’ve been fortunate to live, none ever captured my heart as quickly and as deeply as Detroit. The creative expression, as well as the ideas, perspectives and histories, of the people I meet consistently grabs my attention, and ultimately leads me to see, hear and feel my life in new ways.

What follows is a conversation that never took place. It is a collaged memory of actual conversations I had over the past few weeks, by phone, email and in person, with four artists who inspire me with their creative practice, their artistic output and their fundamental ways of being in the world.

The spectrum of connected and disconnected memories, creative motivations, and individual passions in this unreal conversation reflects the aspect of Detroit I most deeply admire – the people who call this city home.

March 7 - April 19, 2014Gallery hours: Saturdays, 12-3pm and March 20 & April 17, 7-9pm

We usually take steps to ensure artwork stands the test of time, but sometimes truly remarkable things only exist for a short while. Featuring artwork by local and national artists, "The Temporary Show" calls attention to the ephemeral, fleeting and transitory. This exhibition may look different from one week to the next, as work grows, decays, evaporates, melts, or is somehow manipulated by the viewer.

February 22, 2014

never enough but enough but not all i have but all i give and yet it really isn’t enough and yet it really is all i do while my heroes did/do/will do more this is all i do and i know it is really both not enough and enough and the most selfish thing is the most selfless thing and yet i’m sure it really is never enough unless i’m wrong and later i find out it was/is/will be just right

A project of Spread Art, the third Thursday of every month The Creative [ ] Incubator invites creatives to experiment with the low and the hi tech while exploring new possibilities in an improvised, collaborative performance environment. Each month features a different [focus] discipline, with [music] happening every other month.

The Creative [ ] Incubator began as The Creative Music Incubator, hosted for 1 year at The Tank in NYC. Now based in Detroit, the series maintains its focus on experimentation and collaboration, while exploring different creative discipline each month